UK to let Spain check Gibraltar passports in deal with EU

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The UK has agreed to allow Spanish officials to check passports at Gibraltar’s airport and port in return for an open land crossing into Spain, in a long-awaited deal on the British territory’s status after Brexit.

The concession by London ended one of the last issues created by Brexit, and paved the way for the announcement on Wednesday of an agreement between the UK, EU and Spain on Gibraltar’s frontier.

It came after UK foreign secretary David Lammy flew to Brussels from Gibraltar on Wednesday for talks with his Spanish counterpart José Manuel Albares and EU Brexit commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.

Gibraltar had been in limbo since early 2020 when Brexit came into effect, with London, Brussels and Madrid unable to agree on border issues that had inflamed UK-Spain tensions over the territory’s disputed sovereignty.

The UK — backed firmly by Gibraltar’s chief minister Fabian Picardo — had resisted the presence of Spanish border police on its territory.

However, Spain and the EU insisted Spanish police at the airport were the price the UK had to pay for an open land border between Gibraltar and Spain, which in effect makes the territory part of the EU’s Schengen free-travel zone.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, the UK, EU and Spain said: “For the EU, full Schengen checks will be carried out by Spain. For the UK, full Gibraltar checks will continue to be carried out as they are today.”

Albares, Spain’s foreign minister, said the Spanish police would be able to turn away British passport holders, for example if they had already hit a 90-day post-Brexit limit on the time they can stay in the EU every 180 days. 

“The Spanish police will guarantee the full integrity of the Schengen area and of course Gibraltar is connected with the Schengen zone,” Albares said.

He said the “historic accord” would “benefit above all the 15,000 people who every day move between Gibraltar and [Spain]”.

Lammy said the agreement “protects British sovereignty, supports Gibraltar’s economy and allows businesses to plan for the long-term once again”. 

Referring to the UK’s previous Conservative administration, he said the Labour government “inherited a situation from the last government which put Gibraltar’s economy and way of life under threat. Today’s breakthrough delivers a practical solution after years of uncertainty.”